Stable volume and quality improvement in foreign trade, with multiple opportunities for growth
Since the beginning of this year, China's foreign trade has continued its steady progress in scale and taken solid steps in structural optimization. In terms of exports, artificial intelligence, robots, innovative drugs, and other technologies are accelerating their rise and becoming new engines driving growth; In terms of imports, the historical growth rate has surpassed exports, and the trade balance has significantly increased. At the same time, the diversified layout of the market continues to deepen, and the "circle of friends" is becoming larger and larger.
Several experts stated in interviews with reporters that China's foreign trade has shown a positive trend of stabilizing quantity and improving quality, with multiple points of growth, injecting Chinese momentum into the global economic and trade recovery.
More balanced import and export
According to data from the General Administration of Customs, the total import and export value of goods trade in China reached 34.78 trillion yuan in the first eight months of this year, a year-on-year increase of 17.6%, continuing the rapid double-digit growth trend. Among them, exports amounted to 20.17 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.6%; Imports amounted to 14.61 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 22%.
Zhao Fujun, Director of the Comprehensive Research Office of the Foreign Economic Research Department of the Development Research Center of the State Council, believes that in the first eight months, China's export product structure has shown obvious characteristics of being new, intelligent, and green. The export of electromechanical products amounted to 12.91 trillion yuan, accounting for 64% of China's total export value during the same period. Among them, exports of lithium batteries, automobiles, industrial robots, and ships increased by 34.4%, 47.1%, 13%, and 29.8%, respectively.
Strong import growth promotes balanced trade development. In August, imports increased by 21.7%, and the monthly year-on-year growth rate of imports exceeded that of exports for six consecutive months. Zhu Caihua, professor of the School of Economics of the University of International Business and Economics, said that the rapid growth of imports reflects the demand potential of China's super large market and the determination to promote balanced development of trade. At the same time, as a major manufacturing country, China's expanding demand for upstream raw materials, intermediate goods, etc. has also driven an increase in imports.
With the increasingly complete and efficient industrial and supply chain system in China, more and more foreign-funded enterprises are deeply integrating into China's industrial ecology. In the first 8 months, there were nearly 80000 foreign-invested enterprises with import and export records in China, and the growth rate of foreign-invested enterprises' import and export continued to lead; The import and export of private enterprises reached 19.79 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 17.6%. "The improvement of foreign trade quality is not only reflected in the optimization of the main structure, but also reflected in the diversified development of the market structure." Shao Yujia, an associate researcher of the Institute of International Trade and Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce, analyzed that China's trade with ASEAN grew by 20.6% in the first eight months, and its trade with countries jointly building the "the Belt and Road" grew by 15.9%, significantly reducing its dependence on the single market.
Kinetic energy conversion during acceleration
In recent years, the growth momentum of China's foreign trade has accelerated its transformation. China's industrial upgrading and development, research and development capabilities, and technological strength continue to improve, and the global competitiveness of high value-added products and green products is steadily increasing, becoming an important driving force for export growth, "said Fu Linghui, spokesperson for the National Bureau of Statistics, chief economist, and director of the National Economic Comprehensive Statistics Department.
The enhancement of enterprise system competitiveness is the root cause of the accelerated transformation of foreign trade growth momentum. Guizhou Ruiyi Machinery Technology Co., Ltd. in Zunyi, Guizhou, relies on independently developed core technologies to provide one-stop services from design to after-sales for overseas customers; Electronic products from Enshi, Hubei have begun to enter the North African market in bulk; Shandong Linqing's Sanhe Textile Group maintains a stable market share of 30% in the African market. Foreign trade enterprises have their own strengths in technological innovation, market diversification, and business upgrading, jointly promoting the improvement of China's foreign trade quality.
Zhu Caihua said that the pragmatism of Chinese enterprises combined with the demand for infrastructure construction and consumption upgrading constantly released by emerging markets is creating a growing blue ocean market. Enterprises enhance product added value through technological innovation, driving production from "manufacturing" to "intelligent manufacturing".
At the level of market diversification, "the major foreign trade provinces in the eastern region continue to deepen their cultivation of developed economies and emerging markets, forming a market pattern of 'multi-point layout and risk diversification', while inland enterprises use land routes to directly connect with the Central Asian and European markets," said Shao Yujia.
At the level of upgrading business models, "Chinese enterprises are transitioning from 'traditional' to 'digital', from 'selling products' to' selling technology and solutions'." Zhu Caihua analyzed that the former is mainly manifested in enterprises actively embracing new business models such as cross-border e-commerce, opening up growth space for traditional industries through model innovation, logistics innovation, and brand building; The latter indicates a significant increase in the technological and service content of traded products.
Experts suggest that behind the improvement of the competitiveness of foreign trade enterprises is the continuous deepening of industrial gradient transfer, coupled with the sustained release of policy dividends such as the Western Land Sea New Corridor, China Europe freight trains, and the opening of border ports. At the same time, in the process of foreign trade transformation and upgrading, enterprises are no longer just "selling goods", but repositioning their position in the global industrial chain.
Strong resilience to withstand risks
The International Monetary Fund recently predicted that the global trade growth rate will slow down from 5% in 2025 to 3.5% this year, and there are still many uncertain and unpredictable factors facing the development of foreign trade. We will unwaveringly expand high-level opening-up to the outside world, stabilize exports and expand imports with more pragmatic policy measures, more convenient service guarantees, and especially promote innovative and balanced development of trade, continuing to make positive contributions to global economic and trade development, "said Yang Tao, Director General of the Foreign Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce.
From the perspective of stabilizing exports, the government should act as a "guardian" and create a stable and predictable institutional environment. Zhu Caihua said that on the one hand, we need to strengthen policy support, including implementing various policies to stabilize foreign trade and accelerating the empowerment of artificial intelligence in foreign trade. On the other hand, we need to strengthen financial protection and risk prevention, and put a "safety belt" on enterprises going global.
From the perspective of expanding imports, China has orderly expanded its independent and unilateral opening-up, implemented zero tariffs on all African countries with diplomatic relations, held international exhibitions such as the China International Import Expo, and created favorable conditions for high-quality global goods to enter China. The long-term resilience of foreign trade is ultimately anchored in the domestic market. Shao Yujia believes that an economy that can both "sell globally" and "buy globally" has buffer space only when global trade slows down.
Experts have stated that China's foreign trade has improved its resilience to withstand challenges in exploring emerging markets. More and more Chinese made products are adapting to international market demands through innovation, which not only enriches the choices of global consumers, but also embeds them into the global supply chain system with unprecedented depth, weaving a more stable and resilient trade network for the world economy.